


Pumpkin

by aroseofstone (Adams1422)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adams1422/pseuds/aroseofstone
Summary: After 1,000 years of life, the Doctor attends his first Halloween party. TenToo/Rose fluff





	Pumpkin

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I know that this is super late for Halloween, but I had such a good time writing it and I really wanted to share it. I know it's sort of rough and it hasn't been beta'd, so please forgive any mistakes! Thank you so much to everyone out there who still takes the time to read my work. I still love these two with my whole heart.

At just over 1,000 years old, the Doctor has done many, many things. He has toppled entire empires and stopped assassinations and had drinks with Homer and met the most beautiful woman who has ever lived. There’s also a few things he has not done. Things he has never expected to do, even. The Doctor, with all his years and experience and even being stranded on this one planet for three years now, has never attended a Halloween party.

“Doctor, are you almost ready?” The voice of the most beautiful woman who has ever lived floats across the living room and into the bathroom.

“Just about, Rose,” he calls back. He adjusts his heavy double-breasted suit jacket one last time and twists his fringe into the perfect position. Truth be told, Pierre Curie had very short hair, not nearly as good as the Doctor’s own, and he is unwilling to have flat, drab hair for the mere sake of a Halloween costume. 

He finally turns away from the mirror and walks out to the living room. When he catches sight of Rose, he whistles under his breath.

“Well, if it isn’t Madame Curie herself,” he says. She giggles and he takes her face gently between his palms. She bites her bottom lip. The little smile that graces her lips makes his heart skip a beat still, after all this time.

“You look great, Pierre,” Rose whispers. The Doctor grins and inches his face down closer to hers until their lips are just brushing together. Rose leans up on her tiptoes and presses their lips together harder for just a moment, just long enough to make him consider ripping off her lab coat and taking her back to the bedroom. She drops back down onto her heels, their lips parting with a soft ‘smack.’

“C’mon, Dr. Curie, get your lab coat on. We’re gonna be late.”

“Yes, Madame,” the Doctor says with a terrible attempt at a French accent.

“Doctor, you promised you wouldn’t do an accent,” Rose groans as she grabs her purse.

“Just getting it all out now,” he says. He shrugs on his lab coat then grabs Rose’s hand.

 

_______________________________

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home and watch Charlie Brown instead?” the Doctor asks as they’re pulling up to Torchwood HQ. He shifts in his seat, tapping his fingers on his thigh. He isn’t sure why he’s feeling a little on edge at the thought of this party. Maybe just because it’s one of the few things he’s never done. Although… the Doctor has always relished the opportunity to do new things.

He’s forced to admit that perhaps it has more to do with the fact that he’s going to have to meet and properly socialise with all of Rose’s co-workers tonight for the first time ever. Sure, he’s been to Torchwood before, but he’s made it a point to spend as little time as possible in this building. He knows that the Torchwood in this universe is different to the one in their original home. And he trusts Rose’s judgement with his life. He trusts her judgement with the lives of every person they’ve ever come across, actually. Rose is the kindest, most level-headed person he knows. Yet he can’t shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach every time he thinks about the organisation. The idea of spending a whole night schmoozing with everyone who works at Torchwood, regardless of the fact that this is the _good_ Torchwood, makes him a bit nervous. There’s also a little piece of him that’s worried about spending time with her friends. Worried that they won’t like him or that he’ll somehow reflect poorly on Rose. Silly, he knows. He’ll have to make sure and tell Rose about his anxieties later. He doesn’t want to needlessly ruin the party for her, but he knows how important it is to talk such things out.

She looks over at him, her eyes soft, and he can’t help but feel that she knows exactly what he’s thinking. She places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes gently.

“Look, if we get in there and it’s boring or… whatever, we’ll head straight home. Besides, I heard Leanne made banana pudding pops. We should at least go grab some food and candy, huh?” His ears perk up at the mention of food and he nods. Truth be told, he would follow Rose through the gates of the underworld – if it existed – so this little party should be a piece of cake. She grins and presses a swift kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“Good, I want everyone to see how hot you look in this suit and lab coat, Dr. Curie.”

_______________________

 

The room is dimly lit, primarily by little fairy lights shaped like skulls and jack-o’-lanterns with LEDs pulsing in their mouths. “Monster Mash” fills the room. It’s obvious that this is a “grown-up party” because the music is low enough for a human to hear someone speaking next to them. Rose’s co-workers mill about the room, some dancing in the corner near the snacks, some clearly only here to network. One man is jumping from person to person, talking loudly and shaking every hand he can get within three feet of.

“So,” Rose says, looping her arm through his and looking up at him, “there’s a pumpkin carving contest happening. From what I heard, Dad bought out an entire pumpkin patch just for this party. D’you wanna do that?”

“Well, would it be fair for someone trained by Michelangelo himself to enter a workplace pumpkin carving contest?” the Doctor teases, his eyebrows jumping up and down. Rose squeezes his arm as she laughs.

“A little showing off might not be such a bad thing,” she says. Pride fills the Doctor’s chest at her words and he can’t help but preen just a little. “After all, I’ve spent so much time bragging about you to everyone here… It’s about time you prove me right.”

“Bragging about me?” the Doctor asks, mouth dropping open. “You brag about me to your co-workers?”

“You’re my husband, Doctor,” Rose says, rolling her beautiful eyes. “Of course I brag about you.”

“I brag about you too, you know,” he says. He steps around in front of her, leaning his head down to look directly into her eyes. A small smile curls at the edges of her lips and her fingers lace behind his neck, holding him close.

“Oh yeah?” she whispers.

“Everyone at the Imperial College knows how brilliant and kind and beautiful my wife is,” the Doctor says. After over six months of marriage, he still loves the way calling Rose his wife tastes on his tongue. It’s intoxicating, just like everything else about her.

Rose stretches just a little bit further so that her lips graze against his. A shiver tingles up his spine, spreading out across his back and around his entire body. The scent of her perfume and, just beneath it, pure Rose, surrounds him. His hands land on her hips and he pulls her even closer, pressing her flush against his chest.

Just as Rose’s tongue is peeking out to run along the seam of his lips, someone clears their throat next to them. They spring apart, their lips separating with a wet smack.

“So glad you two decided to join us tonight,” Pete says. Amusement dances in his eyes as the Doctor and Rose both scramble for an explanation. He holds his hand up and they both fall silent. “It’s fine. Maybe find a more secluded place to… do that, though? Right off the entrance of the party might be a little conspicuous. Just imagine if it had been your mum who wandered up instead of me.”

“Of course,” the Doctor says, nodding hard enough to give himself a crick in his neck. “Dunno what came over us.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Rose says. A light blush stains her cheeks pink and the Doctor’s hand itches to cup her face to feel the heat of it against his palm.  

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Jackie you two were canoodling in front of God and everybody.” Pete laughs. Rose grumbles that they were, in fact, not _canoodling_ , but she lets it drop. She steps away from the Doctor and gives Pete a tight hug. Pete kisses the top of her head and stretches one of his arms out to shake the Doctor’s hand.

“Are you guys going to do the carving contest?” Pete asks as he steps back and puts his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, the Doctor and I are gonna crush the competition,” Rose says. Pete laughs.

“I’m sure you will. Last year was a bit of a disaster, to be honest with you. You guys missed it but Terrance actually stabbed himself in the hand and had to go to A&E. He’s been ‘promoted’ to the panel of judges this year.” Pete shakes his head.

Someone calls his name across the room and Pete excuses himself, making his way towards an anxious-looking woman in a bat costume. They hurry off towards the elevator, up to the sixth floor from what the Doctor can see.

“What’s on floor six?” he asks, tilting his head.

“The red line,” Rose says. She doesn’t look concerned in the least. “We have more trouble with that damn thing… 90% of the time it’s some kind of false alarm because the Prime Minister accidentally set off the alert, then we have to spend the next half hour calling and reporting into all the different offices. I swear, it would be better to get rid of it altogether.”

“The red line?” The Doctor’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “As in, an emergency direct line from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? I didn’t know that was a real thing.”

“I don’t think it is in the original universe,” she says with a shrug. “Like I said, it’s pretty much a big waste of funding. The switch is too easy for the PM to hit and half the time he doesn’t even realise he’s done it.”

“So we shouldn’t be alarmed that your father just rushed off with that spider woman towards the red line?” the Doctor clarifies with one quirked eyebrow. Rose smiles at him and shakes her head. His shoulders relax. She laces her fingers through his and pulls him towards one of the snack tables.

The scent of little sausages covered in barbeque sauce wafts over to him and his stomach growls loudly. He and Rose both grab plates and stack them high with little finger foods. He hands his plate off to Rose for her to find them a seat while he gets them each a glass of punch. He goes for the clearly labelled non-alcoholic variant since they drove here, and heads over to the table Rose has chosen. Another couple is sitting across from her and she’s chatting quietly with them. When the Doctor gets to the table, Rose stands and gives him a kiss on the cheek, placing a hand on his stomach.

“Abby, Brianna, this is the Doctor,” she says, grinning from ear to ear. Abby is a petite redhead who is dressed as Daphne from _Scooby Doo._ Brianna is tall and lanky with short-cropped brown hair, dressed as Velma. “Doctor, these are my friends Abby and Briana.”

“Ah, of course!” The Doctor reaches across the table to shake their hands. “Rose has told me all about you. So nice to meet you.”

“She’s told us about you, too,” says Abby.

“Can’t get her to shut up about you, actually. We’ve been waiting for ages to meet the elusive, brilliant Doctor,” Brianna says with a grin. She shakes the Doctor’s hand firmly and he and Rose take their seats.

“So, how are you lot doing?” Abby asks. She laces her fingers together with Brianna’s and takes a sip from her punch.

“We’re alright,” Rose says. “The Doctor is presenting at a big conference next week, so we’ve been spending a lot of our time preparing for that. This is our first break in a while, actually. Between teaching for him and Torchwood for me, it’s been pretty busy. What about you two?”

As they chat, the Doctor and Rose begin picking off of each other’s plates and suggesting things for the other to try. The little sausages were a big hit, particularly if they were dipped in the cheese dip.

“Well, I finally took Abbs to meet my grandparents,” says Brianna.

“Oh, how did that go? I know you guys were kind of nervous,” Rose says, concern etched into her face. The Doctor immediately finds himself leaning forward to listen to the story. He wasn’t lying, Rose really has told him all about Abby and Brianna. He’s heard about their struggles with coming out to the team at Torchwood (who had been incredibly supportive overall, of course. The one guy who gave them a spot of trouble was terminated by Pete the moment it was brought to his attention.) They’ve also been slowly introducing each other to their families and he knows it’s been a bumpy road for the both of them.

“It actually went really well,” Abby says with a megawatt smile. She squeezes

Brianna’s fingers and looks over at her girlfriend. “Her grandma was lovely. Her grandpa was a little standoffish at first. I was kind of nervous about it until her gran gave him a talking-to and he warmed up.”

“Turns out he was only upset because she was wearing a Manchester United sweater,” Brianna says with an eye roll.

“I donated the sweater to a shelter when we got back home. I don’t even actually care about footie. I was only wearing it because my brother gave it to me for my birthday and all my other sweaters were dirty.” Abby says. The whole table bursts into laughter and the Doctor is just about to chime in with his story of getting slapped by Jackie when a large blond man slaps a plate down on their table and sits down, rather too close to Rose for the Doctor’s liking. The mood around the table tangibly shifts, and Brianna even goes as far as to sigh out loud and scoot her chair further from the new man.

“Hello Jason,” Rose says politely. She shifts her chair a few inches closer to the Doctor, firmly out of Jason’s personal space.

“Hello Rosie,” Jason says, looking at her with an expression that makes the Doctor instantly see red. Plenty of pretty boys have given Rose this exact look in the past, but it hasn’t happened in front of him since they got married. For a moment, he has a violent desire to slam Jason’s blonde head into his plate full of little sandwiches and cheese dip.

“She’s told you not to call her that, Burbank,” Abby says with a cold enough to send a chill down the Doctor’s spine. Turns out the Doctor likes these girls more than he ever knew.

“Yeah, like, a hundred times. She’s too nice to tell Director Tyler, but if you think I won’t you’ve got another thing coming,” Brianna says. The Doctor physically has to stop himself from leaning across the table and high-fiving both of the girls.

“Sorry, old habits,” Jason says. His teeth are obnoxiously big and white, each one of them catching the light as he gives Rose a big, sleazy smile. Perhaps some might call the smile “charming,” but those people are far less perceptive than the Doctor. His half Time Lord senses allow him to sense all sorts of… things. Like the fact that this Jason is bad news. And that he wears far too much cologne. And that his half Time Lord fist could easily smash those stupid teeth.

The Doctor leans around Rose and his hand shoots out in front of him. “Hello Jason, I’m the Doctor.”

“Ah, so this is your boyfriend,” Jason says with a smirk, still looking at Rose. “I was starting to think he didn’t exist.”

“I’m her husband, actually,” the Doctor says through clenched teeth. He shoves his hand at Jason’s chest once more and finally he meets the Doctor’s grip. The Doctor tightens his hold on Jason’s hand, just a little tighter than he knows is comfortable for a human. He sees Jason wince a little and the Doctor bounces his hand up a couple of times, squeezing a little harder at the end, before releasing him.

“You _know_ he’s my husband, Jason,” Rose says. Oh, the Doctor is familiar with this particular tone. He usually sees it reserved for when Tony is deliberately misbehaving, though she has used it on him once or twice. It sends ice through his veins just to be in close proximity to it.

“Sure,” Jason says. Seeing him massage the hand that the Doctor had in a vice gives him a little rush of satisfaction. “You look great, Rose.”

“Of course she does,” Abby says, saving Rose from having to respond. “What’re you supposed to be anyway, Burbank?”

He’s in a lab coat that’s far too small for him, accentuating his bulging biceps and thick chest. On his head is a little top hat and he has a fake moustache glued onto his face. If the Doctor squints, he supposes it’s a little reminiscent of –

“I’m Pierre Curie, duh,” says Jason, puffing out his chest.

“I’m sorry, you’re who?” Rose asks. Her mouth is gaping and confusion colours her voice.

“Pierre Curie,” he repeats slowly, as though he thinks she isn’t keeping up. “You ought to know who he is, you married him, after all.”

“Wait, you’re Madame Curie’s husband?” Brianna asks. She laughs incredulously and she and Abby share a look that clearly shows exactly how they feel about Jason.

“Didn’t Rose tell you who she was coming as, like, two weeks ago?” Abby asks.

“Of course she did. Why do you think I chose this dumb costume?” Jason says, rolling his eyes. In all this time, he has never looked away from Rose once. Rose squirms uncomfortably beneath his gaze and the Doctor stands up abruptly, offering Rose his seat and taking hers. He blocks Rose from Jason and stares the obnoxious knob down with all the fury of the oncoming storm. Something shifts behind Jason’s eyes, a smidge of fear creeps in, a crack in the cocky exterior. He shifts a little in his seat before standing up and grabbing his plate.

“I think Greg wants me to go sit with him,” he mumbles, skulking off in a random direction.

“Who was that?” the Doctor asks. His eyes track Jason across the room and he hopes he can feel him boring holes in his back with his gaze.

“Jason Burbank,” Rose growls. She grabs one of the little sandwiches off of the Doctor’s plate and rips it in half, shoving part of it into her mouth. “We were paired up on an assignment _once_ two years ago and he has not left me alone since.”

“I cannot stand that wanker,” Abby says. “You okay, Rose?”

“Yeah,” Rose says, swallowing and nodding. “Yeah, ’course. He just riles me up so much. I actually thought he wasn’t going to be here tonight. Ugh, I cannot believe he deliberately chose a costume to match mine.”

“Nor can I,” the Doctor says darkly. “Y’know, I think Jason and I might need to have a little chat outside.”

Rose immediately turns to the Doctor and places a hand on his arm. “No, Doctor. That is exactly what we are _not_ going to do tonight. You and I are going to have a nice time with my friends, we’re going to win the pumpkin carving contest, then we are going to go home and watch Charlie Brown. You are not going to do something to get yourself detained for the night.”

“Rose,” the Doctor says, placing a hand over his heart. “You know I don’t believe in violence. I would never lay a hand on the man. I just think he could use a talking-to, that’s all. Would I like to kick in his perfect teeth? Sure. But I never would.”

“What are you on about ‘perfect teeth?’” Rose asks with a quirked eyebrow. “Doctor, you do know that I can’t stand him, right? He and his teeth that are too big for his mouth are not even _close_ to competition. You’re my husband, for god’s sake.”

“And you’re a hell of a lot better looking than him,” Brianna mumbles into her punch.

Though the rational part of his brain knows without a shadow of a doubt that Rose would never leave him, especially for a wanker the calibre of Jason Burbank, something in his chest rests a little easier at the tone of voice she uses. Like she couldn’t imagine anything more ridiculous.

“Oi, you guys are doing the carving contest?” Abby asks. The Doctor rather likes the mischievous glint he can see in her eye.

“Yeah, why?” Rose asks. She scoots a little closer to the Doctor so that the side of her shoulder is pressed against his chest.

“Burbank is too. He’s been bragging all week about how he’s got it in the bag. I heard he even bet money _on himself_.”

“Oh, _yes,_ ” says the Doctor. “Did you girls know that I studied under Michelangelo?”

 

_________________________

 

“Last call for the carving contest! If you want to enter, you’d better get to the courtyard right now!” Jackie’s voice booms over the loudspeaker causing several people in a close range to clutch at their ears.

The Doctor and Rose have just finished picking out their favourite pumpkin and setting up their station. Rose places the last of their carving tools on their table and looks up at him, excitement in her eyes.

“So, what’re we gonna carve, maestro?” she says, rubbing her hands together.

“I figured we could carve my favourite subject,” the Doctor says. He twists the pumpkin around, searching for the perfect surface to begin carving. He rubs a little bit of dirt from a crevice in the front of the pumpkin.

“What’s that?” Rose asks with a furrowed brow. “Some kind of element or a galaxy or the TARDIS?”

He looks over at her, shocked that she hadn’t caught his meaning immediately. “You, of course.”

“Wh – me? You’re gonna carve _me_?” she asks. A smile is pulling at her mouth and a blush is filling out her cheeks.

“What could be more impressive than carving a pumpkin of the most beautiful woman who has ever lived?” the Doctor says. Something deep and old in his chest tightens a little at such a bold deceleration of his innermost feelings, but it is quieted by the look on Rose’s face. She looks… absolutely awestruck. Like she thinks she’s the luckiest woman to ever live as well. All he really knows is that he wants to put that look on his face every day for the rest of his life.

“Cor, could you two get a handle on it?” asks a teasing voice from behind them. Abby and Brianna walk up hand-in-hand with matching smirks on their faces. “You’re disgustingly cute.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t be listening to other people’s conversations, Bri,” Rose says. The blush on her cheeks has intensified and the Doctor doesn’t stop himself from reaching up to cup her face. Her cheek is warm beneath his palm and he strokes his thumb along to the corner of her mouth.  

“Oh, c’mon! Get a room,” Abby groans. “We only came over here to check on you lot, not get a glimpse at your foreplay.”

The Doctor snatches his hand away from her face and clears his throat. “We aren’t doing anything like that. I’m just taking a better look at my subject before it’s time to start carving.”

“Your subject?” Brianna asks.

“He’s gonna sculpt my face outta pumpkin,” Rose says, just on the edge of bragging. Her friends’ faces light up in excitement and curiosity, turning to the Doctor for further explanation.

“Well, I have the most experience sculpting Rose, you see. Sure, I’ve never done it in pumpkin, but I figure after doing it in marble, pumpkin will be a breeze.”

“Wait, did you just say you’ve sculpted her face out of _marble?_ ” Brianna asks, dumbfounded.

“Her whole body, really,” the Doctor says with a modest shrug.

“He did a perfect likeness,” Rose says, this time firmly on the side of bragging. “It’s in a museum in our original universe and all.”

“I am going to need so much more information,” Abby mumbles. Brianna nods, seemingly at a loss for words.

“We’ll tell you the story another time,” the Doctor says with a wink. Just as the girls are opening their mouths demand answers, Jackie’s voice comes over the loudspeaker again.

“Okay, on your mark, get set, carve!”

The Doctor flips the pumpkin over and holds out his hand, “knife.”

Rose hands him a large knife and he sets to cutting out a circle on the bottom of the pumpkin, slicing in smooth, even strokes until he can push one part of the circle in and grab the bit that pops up. While he starts gutting the pumpkin, Rose cuts all the stringy guts off of the base that he’s handed to her. They have the whole gourd gutted and ready for carving in record time.

“Marker,” the Doctor says, palm extended to Rose. She smacks the marker into his hand and he starts tracing out the fine lines of Rose’s face onto the pumpkin. He looks at her periodically while he works. Not because he needs to be reminded what her face looks like, it is etched perfectly into his memory, after all. Simply because he loves to look at her.

Once he has his outline, he holds his hand out and requests the peeler. Rose hands it to him and he sets to work delicately peeling away strips of pumpkin rind along his outline. Rose gives him little tips along the way, looking at the carving from different angles and helping to improve his design.

After quite some time, he gets her face carved out perfectly, lovingly. The pale orange flesh of the peeled pumpkin drawing gasps from passers-by.

Then the Doctor starts with embellishments, taking all of Rose’s directions. They carve out spiralling designs around her face, letting the light of the candle shine through and softly illuminate the carving. Jackie calls time just as Rose tells the Doctor she’s satisfied with their creation.

“We’ve got it in the bag,” Rose says. Her voice sounds tight and when the Doctor looks over at her, he can see tears shining in her eyes.

“Rose, love, what’s the matter?” he asks, dropping the little carving knife and cupping her cheeks with sticky palms. She sniffs hard and shakes her head, putting her hands over his and holding them tighter to her.

“Nothing’s the matter,” she says with a little laugh. “It’s just… it’s really beautiful, Doctor. I can’t believe that’s really how you see me.”

“Rose,” he whispers, bringing his forehead down to press against hers. “This little pumpkin doesn’t even begin to do justice to how beautiful you are. Nothing ever could. No one could, not even Michelangelo himself.”

A tear rolls down Rose’s cheek and she leans up on her tiptoes to bring their lips together. He tastes the salt on her lips. He’s just about to deepen the kiss when Brianna’s voice interrupts them.

“Hello, you lot,” she says, tapping the Doctor’s shoulder. “If you actually want to be judged in this contest, you have to bring your pumpkin to the judging table.”

As the Doctor and Rose separate, Brianna walks over and gasps at their pumpkin. “Holy shit, Doctor. This is… this is art. Oh man, Burbank doesn’t stand a chance.”

She spins around and calls for Abby, laughing just a little manically. “Baby! You have _got_ to see this! Burbank can eat his heart out.”

____________________

 

All of the pumpkins are lined up on a long table with little numbers in front of them for anonymous judging. The panel of judges is made up of Pete, Jackie, Terrance, and someone called Mildred who Rose says is from the front desk.

The judges walk in a single file line along the table, taking notes in their notepads. Each and every one of them stops in front of their pumpkin and gawks, writing frantic notes on their pads. The Doctor does his best to keep his ego in check, but he can’t help the pride that swells in his chest as everyone looks at what he and Rose created together. He wants to do everything with her for the rest of his life.

“Okay,” Jackie says, standing in front of the table with her arms clasped behind her back. “The judges will now deliberate, then we will announce the winner!”

The Doctor chuckles a little at how serious this silly little carving contest seems to everyone involved. Sure, he would love to win and shove his beautiful pumpkin in Burbank’s face, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. He and Rose drift over to the corner of the courtyard and chat quietly while they wait for the deliberation to be done.

“Y’know, we’ve been getting interrupted an awful lot tonight,” Rose says, looping her arms around his neck. He places his hands on her hips and they sway slightly to the music, some Halloween song from this universe that he’s never heard before.

“We sure have,” he agrees quietly. “I can’t wait to get you home and have you all to myself.”

“Oh yeah?” Rose teases. “What’re you gonna do then?”

“As soon as I get you inside that flat, I’m going to –”

“Attention, everyone!”

The Doctor and Rose groan in unison and break apart from each other, walking back over to the centre of the action. The judges have reconvened and Jackie is standing at the front with three little gift baggies in her hands.

  “In third place, and winning a £15 gift card to Zonks, pumpkin seventeen!” The crowd cheers and a young woman in a Batman costume bounces over to Jackie to claim her prize. “Mariette, great job! Honestly the best carving I’ve ever seen of a swarm of bats.”

“In second place, winning a £30 gift card to Bryant’s, is pumpkin eight! Number eight, come claim your prize!”

Everyone cheers and an old man, about eighty from what the Doctor can tell, is pushed forward towards the front.

“Oh, thank you all so much,” he says, a huge smile lighting up his face. The Doctor cheers and claps. The old man’s carving of Starry Night is honestly a work of art, if you asked him. The most beautiful thing at the party other than the Rose pumpkin (and Rose herself, obviously).

“And finally, the number one winner, claiming a whopping £150 Amazon – I mean _Amasoon_ gift card is –”

The crowd drums on their thighs as Jackie pauses dramatically, looking around at all the people. The Doctor can’t help but grin at how much Jackie is clearly loving being the centre of attention.

“Carver number ten! Number ten, come claim your prize!” The crowd goes wild as Rose and the Doctor go up to the front to grab the little gift baggie from his mother-in-law.

“Tell me honestly,” the Doctor whispers to Jackie as he’s giving her a quick hug, “was it rigged?”

She smacks him on the arm. “’Course it wasn’t! My beautiful daughter’s face combined with my son-in-law’s talent? No one else stood a chance. You did a great job, Doctor. Everyone thinks so. The decision for first was unanimous, in fact.”

“Thank you, Jackie,” he says. Jackie kisses his cheek and lets him back. “I think the two of us are probably going to head home now.”

 

______________________

 

After stopping for a quick gloat at the expense of Jason Burbank, who had carved a mediocre zombie into a pink pumpkin, the Doctor and Rose do decide to make their way home for the night. They had left their pumpkin with Jackie since she wanted to put it on display at the Tyler mansion.

“I know it’s kinda early, but I’m ready to have you to myself,” Rose says, swinging their joined hands between them.

“No complaints from me,” the Doctor says with a big grin. “Besides, I can’t wait to finish everything that we started earlier, my beautiful pumpkin.”

Rose laughs so hard that she has to stop, clutching at her stomach. The Doctor joins her, their laughter bouncing off the wet pavement and into the dark night.

“Doctor,” Rose says once they’ve caught their breath.

“Yes, Rose?”

“Never call me your beautiful pumpkin again.”

“Yes, Rose.”


End file.
